User talk:Godisme
Welcome Hi, welcome to Berserk Wiki! Thanks for your edit to the User talk:TVthePunisher page. Please leave a message on my talk page if I can help with anything! -- Zantam03 (Talk) 03:42, 24 September 2010 Re: Where to Read Hey, welcome God! This is going to be LOOOOONG but...here we go! Well Dark Horse is the company that releases the english versions here in America and typically they can only be found in certain electronic stores such as F.Y.E (For Your Entetainment), Suncoast and even stores dedicated to just anime. Because the Manga has such a high rating in the Adult category, I have never seen it provided in a Books-a-Million or Barnes and Nobles. If you're lucky, a local store may carry copies (my local nerd-hangout called Coolector's Mall has just about everything a nerd could want...complete sections dedicated to everything Star Wars, World of Warcraft, Marvel and DC...and an anime area as well, not to mention MILLIONS of comics) but the problem is, the earlier volumes are hard to find being sold as most stores that would carry them have volumes 26+ only. The next best option is Ebay or Amazon...OF COURSE, this is if you want the official translations and the actual Manga...if on the other hand you want the scanlations... I know of several sites and trust me, the best scanlation (next to the official releases) I've seen so far is by The Hawks (kind of like how Bleach uses Ju-ni). MangaKong.com carries has just about every volume on there, except there are two problems with it: 1.) The scanlations they use varies, sometimes you'll get The Hawks quality...other times you'll get something with a Courier text look or text that overrides the bubble. 2.)While Volumes 1 through about 7 are all in the correct order in chapters, many of the volumes after that point place the chapters in an obscure order that is incorrect for the format. So you could be reading chapter...63 one moment and the next chapter would be 70, then 65, then 69...so basically, that only occurs with the grouped volumes (some of the chapters are kept seperate, such as the earlier volumes). The next best site is manga.bleachexile.com (which I've mentioned before for Bleach), like MangaKong it has a directory of at least a hundred different series (if not 200 or 300) going from Shonen Manga to rare Manga and even the Legend of Zelda mangas! You could say they're also a database that holds onto MangaStream's scanlations for Bleach after they've removed them after they became a month old...but regardless, they tend to use the Hawks translation for Berserk a lot more AND they do not suffer from chapters in the wrong order (as they keep every chapter seperate instead of grouping it in as a volume). I will throw some warnings out there however regarding Berserk: the first few volumes, every chapter is at least 50+ pages for starters. In fact, the Prototype (basically the equivalent to Bleach's Pilot Chapter) is over a hundred pages long. The mangaka here is VERY detailed and takes his time when drawing the characters, so you'll truly come across some beautiful...and grotesque artwork at the same time. It's VERY violent, as there are a lot of eyeballs popping out, brains splattering, decapitations, disembowelment...you name it and it doesn't hold back (even some kids are shown slaughtered...heck, the first chapter demonstrates this already). There's also some strong, strong sexual themes...a lot of boobs popping about, but he never draws the most explicit areas so you could say it's softcore + violence. Aside from that, you'll be good to go..it's an Amazing series with a primary antagonist that (in my eyes) is terrific and the main protagonist changes a lot throughout the series. Last advice: Though the series was intended to be read Volumes 1 through 3, then volumes 4 through 14...the actual timeline of events would be the entire Golden Era arc BEFORE the Black Swordsman arc. Volumes 1 through 3 chronicle Guts after the events of 4 - 14, which starts him off as a wee lad who grows into a powerful killing machine. Volumes 15 through 35 (and on) continue where Volume 3 left off, so you could say the Golden Arc is pretty much the Turn Back the Pendelum arc for Bleach but...MUCH LONGER. I should also note that the anime serves as the Golden Era arc, 25 episodes (first being a fusion of Chapters 1 and 2) that go all the way up until just about the end of Volume 13...but they sadly omit characters in the Anime such as Puck, Wyald, the Skull Knight, and a few others. Phew, such a long post! Sorry about that =D TVthePunisher 14:42, September 24, 2010 (UTC)